58 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Feb., 'l/ 



from the standpoint of administration, to have control under 

 a unified system. There is no possible reason why, under such 

 an arrangement, the economic workers should not have the 

 fullest use of the materials, whenever they required them, 

 and the Museum would of course continue to profit enorm- 

 ously by the labors of the Bureau men. 



Under Museum administration, every phase of the science 

 would receive consideration, and each group of insects would 

 have its own museum curator. Great developments would 

 follow, which could not very well occur under economic aus- 

 pices, stretching the law to the utmost. For example, the 

 Museum is extremely deficient in exotic insects, especially those 

 of the Old World. There are of course large exotic collections, 

 notably the neotropical Lepidoptera donated by Schaus ; but 

 when we come to compare the exotic collections as a whole 

 with those of the British Museum, the comparison is humili- 

 ating. 



Without going into further details, I venture to suggest the 

 appointment of a committee of this society to inquire into the 

 subject and report a year hence. The first question is natur- 

 ally that of ways and means. It would be necessary to secure 

 a suitable grant from Congress, and in order to do that, ento- 

 mologists would be called upon to press the matter in as many 

 places and at as many times as opportunity offered. This they 

 could or would only do if convinced of the importance and 

 justice of their cause. It is easy to say that no museum, in any 

 part of ,the world, has yet been able to deal thoroughly with its 

 entomological materials. Even the British Museum has cabi- 

 nets full of accessions, sorted only down to the major groups. 

 Yet it seems reasonable to urge that in view of the great and 

 increasing importance of entomology, and in view of the posi- 

 tion of the United States in the world, we ought certainly to 

 bring our national entomological collections up to a standard 

 which will fairly correspond with our great resources and repu- 

 tation for intelligence. ' 



I have recently had occasion to review certain phases of 

 English nineteenth century history. It is curious to read to- 

 day the discussions over the problem of popular education, held 



